"Hotties" by Jack DiMaggio

The Market Street Art Center kicked off its first annual Member's Show on Saturday, July 12th, with an Opening Reception from 5pm to 8pm.

"The Art Center has grown tremendously the last few years," says Assistant Director Sally Bisher. "What started out as a building that just rented studio space for artists has become a full fledge community center for promoting the arts and exhibiting local and regional artists to an increasingly art savvy community." Since its founding in 2001, the Market Street Art Center has grown to include an art discussion group, art classes for both children and adults, student tours and shows, cultural exchanges with foreign artists, charity benefits, and even seminars on art related topics such as the recent seminar by attorney Kenneth Suzan on art and copyright law.

In 2007 the Market Street Art Center began accepting paid memberships from people who wanted to support the center and be involved in the mission behind it's motto, "art is for everyone." While being an artist is not required to join (there are student, senior citizen, and even corporate rates) many of the early members range from established to aspiring artists so it wasn't long before talk of a Member's Show began.

" Most art shows have a unifying theme," says Joe Buczkowski, Director of the art center, "that may restrict subject matter or media, but this show is wide open to whatever interests our artist members. "We are up to seventy works expressing a wide variety of style, subject, and media," continues Buczkowski. "It's like a smorgasbord of art. You'll never know what you'll find but there is sure to be something for everybody."

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The Market Street Art Center announced the winners of the Member's Show currently on display at the art center, during a reception Friday July 12th. First place was awarded to Kathleen Giles for her oil painting "Dreamy Rose of Sharon." Second Place went to Joe Buczkowski for his watercolor titled "Coming or Going," and another watercolor, "Sparkling Woods," by Charles Ossman took third place. The Director's Choice Award went to Margaret Morgan for her mixed media, "pot of Gold. Two Honorable Mentions were also awarded, one to Dean Huber for his Photograph, "Adirondack Park," and the other to Irvan Duguay for his acrylic painting, "Her Forever."

The show was judged by William Sipple, owner of Frames by Ames in the Bewley Building. "It was truly an honor to judge this show," said William, "because I am an avid lover of art, I was in my glory. There is a lot of talent in this area, and those artists who entered this show should be proud of the work they've done.

This was a very difficult show to judge, with so many beautiful pieces to choose from. Quite a few were worthy of a first place. I am only one person with one opinion. Ten judges could judge the show and you'd probably have ten different winners. Just because your piece was not chosen does not mean it was not worthy, different judges look at different things. The things I look for when I judge a piece are contracts, depth, the use of color, the focal point of the piece and the framing. I try to put myself in that artwork and be where the artist was. To me, a piece should jump out from the wall and practically slap you in the face. You should automatically like it or dislike it. So, when I judge a show, I look for the piece that really sets itself off from the others."